The present invention relates to rear view safety mirrors of the type generally used on large truck cabins and, more particularly, to an improved wiper assembly and heating element which are used with such mirrors to maintain them clear during inclement weather.
The standard rear vision mirrors employed on the cabs of trucks and tandem vehicles are generally rectangular in shape and mounted on the side of the cab of a truck with the longer dimension of the mirror generally vertically disposed. Since such mirrors are exposed to the elements, during travel at high speeds due to their large size, considerable air turbulance is generated which contributes to the deposition of water and dirt on the mirrors surface thus obscuring the driver's rear vision.
Since the undesirable safety conditions resulting from the obscuring of a driver's rear and side vision have long been recognized, the prior art has proposed a number of mechanisms, usually in the form of wiping blades, for clearing the mirror element. Some of the proposed arrangements have resorted to employing spring biased wiper arms similar to the arrangements commonly used in conjuntion with the passenger vehicle windshield wipers while others have resorted to employing rather complicated mechanical linkages to attain wiping of the entire mirror surface. These latter arrangements have been found to be very distracting to drivers when not in use during fair weather conditions and have thus often necessitated the provision of additional equipment to enable the wiping mechanism to be stored when not in use thus further increasing the costs of installing such apparatus.
In arrangements where a standard passenger vehicle wiper arm is utilized to clean the mirror's surface, the most expensive portion of the mechanism is the drive linkages since such articles must be specially designed, otherwise a specially constructed drive motor must be employed which, as it turns out, is not a viable economic alternative. As a consequence of the fact that such mechanical linkages must be specially designed for each type of mirror configuration, these linkages will be much more subject to failure as opposed to linkages which can be mass produced for a standardized and well tested operation.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a safety mirror wiper assembly and heating element which can be readily and very inexpensively adapted to accommodate any mirror dimension and satisfactorily effect efficient wiping action over at least a specific desired portion of the mirror and which does not require complicated mechanical linkages. Additionally, the apparatus of the present invention provides a novel means for effecting squeezing action between the wiper blade and reflecting surface of the mirror which is not subject to deterioration over a period of time as are the usual spring linkages that are commonly employed.